Demons
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Caleb has been through a lot, keeping it all inside...It takes a lot for Hanna to break through. Haleb. OneShot.


_So, _Bagilia _told me this was an amazing song and she was right!_ Demons _by Radioactive Dragons. _I_ fell in complete and utter love! So this was inspired by you :) I have quite a few other oneshots that I have started and I will get them up as soon as I can!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the song._

He didn't know how he had got so lucky.

Some days he would wake up and he still couldn't believe it.

But then there she would be, an eyebrow raised impatiently as she waited for him. Or tapping one of those thousand dollar pairs of shoes as though she had a hundred places better to be, even though she knew that there was no where she would rather be.

And two months later he was beginning to see that.

_When the days are cold  
And the cards all fold  
And the saints we see  
Are all made of gold  
When your dreams all fail  
And the ones we hail  
Are the worst of all  
And the blood's run stale  
I want to hide the truth  
I want to shelter you  
But with the beast inside  
There's nowhere we can hide _

Things never seemed to go right for Caleb Rivers. He had been abandoned by his mother when he was a baby, and although he was too young to remember the trauma that came with being given up by her, he _did _remember all the bouncing between foster homes, because they were still happening now. Some homes were better than others—some places the parents actually acted interested in him, and made sure he had food to eat and a place to sleep. But they would only be the ones that had him for a few weeks—maybe a month. And then there were the rest of them, the majority.

The one he was in now wasn't too bad, not when it was just the woman home. She pretty much ignored him the whole time, pointing to the kitchen when he came downstairs in the morning, and there was usually cereal in the cupboard. But when the man was home, maybe three nights a week, he would always be drunk, always be in a bad mood. After the first couple of black eyes, Caleb started getting out of the house, spending the night in the back room of the gym to avoid going home. But then the chick would come to the school, round him up, threaten to call child services and have him sent away again. So he would go back, and things would be okay for a few days, and then the cycle would start all over again.

It was one morning when he had over slept in the gym and Hanna Marin had come in early to pick up her gym clothes before school class that she had seen him. He hated the pity that he seen flash over her face, but she had quickly swallowed it before shooting a sneer in his direction. As she walked back past him to leave, she had stopped and dropped a bar of soap that she had gotten out of her locker into his lap.

"Shower well. Or you'll smell like feet all day."

_No matter what we breed  
We still are made of greed  
This is my kingdom come  
This is my kingdom come_

It had started small, and slow, but it was still going somewhere.

Hanna would stalk over to him at lunch, when he was sitting at a table with his laptop, and make out that she was doing him a huge favour. She would roll her eyes, stomp her feet, cross her arms and then she would ask under her breath how he was doing. He would raise his eyebrows at her and give her that small knowing grin. For some reason, she was actually interested in how he was doing, and he loved watching her shift there uncomfortably before saying he was fine.

Then he realized she had started making a regular habit of checking the gym in the mornings. She caught him twice more before one day she said that her mother was out of town on a business trip and they had a spare room. He had joked that the only thing he could pay her in was sexual favours and she had just rolled her eyes before leaving.

Caleb had never planned on taking her up on her offer, but that night, the guy came home particularly drunk. He started on his own kid, who was only five. The little boy whimpered in the corner, lip bleeding and eyes wide with fright. Caleb had no issues with the kid—he was actually kinda cute. And he had a hundred issues with a bigger man beating on a defenseless child. He had jumped in straight away, pushing the guy away and grabbing the kid. Before he knew what he was doing, he was carrying Joey Harrison out of the house and running for Hanna's.

He would never forget how Hanna acted when he had showed up on her doorstep.

It was the first thing that made him start to fall for her.

_When you feel my heat  
Look into my eyes  
It's where my demons hide  
It's where my demons hide  
Don't get too close  
It's dark inside  
It's where my demons hide  
It's where my demons hide _

She had ignored the bleeding lip, the wild look in both of their eyes and the fact Caleb was breathing hard from running with a kid on his hip. She had just grinned at Joey, holding out her arms for him. He had reached out to her and she have easily transferred him from Caleb to her own hip, asking if he had dinner and if he wanted to watch TV. Joey had blinked away the tears that had been clouding his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face, smearing the blood from his lip over his cheek. She had put some pasta on the stove and sat him down in front of the TV, quickly wiping away the blood before coming back into the kitchen to where Caleb was watching the pasta. The smile instantly dropped from her face and her eyes had narrowed.

"We've been friends for like two months now and you've never come here when it's been this bad?!" She snapped at him.

"Didn't realize we were friends," Caleb had replied with a raised eyebrow.

"I ask you everyday if you're okay," she had hissed. "I don't even do that with Aria or Spencer!" Caleb hadn't replied, just watched her as she moved around the kitchen angrily, dishes up the dinner onto two plates and shoving one in front of him and taking the other one in to Joey.

The boy fell asleep in front of the TV not too long later and Hanna had showed Caleb to the spare room. She had then disappeared, probably to her own room.

_When the curtain's call  
Is the last of all  
When the lights fade out  
All the sinners crawl  
So they dug your grave  
And the masquerade  
Will come calling out  
At the mess you made  
Don't want to let you down  
But I am hell bound  
Though this is all for you  
Don't want to hide the truth _

Things from there went in two completely different directions. Life at home had gotten worse, and things with Hanna had gotten better. He tried to stay away from the house as much as possible, but he couldn't leave Joey there alone. Ashley Marin always made him feel uncomfortable when she was around, and Hanna obviously hadn't broached the subject of _him _yet, so he was thankful that she always had business trips. She still acted as though she didn't care, but then there would be a comment, or an expression, or just a look that she would get it and he would forget about everything bad happening in his life and just focus on her. One night when Mark Harrison was in the middle of a blind rage, swinging his fists at Caleb as the younger man ducked for cover, his fist connected with Caleb's face. It wasn't the first time he had been hit, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but as he ran from the house, all he could think about was Hanna.

She was too innocent to be exposed to all the shit that went on his life. The only reason that she was being pulled into this life was because of him, and he couldn't do that to her. He knew that she wouldn't think to look back at the gym, she thought the first place he would go would be her place, so he wasn't worried that she would come looking for him.

Caleb tried to avoid Hanna, and he managed for two days. She finally found him, and opened her mouth to rip into him when she saw the black eye.

The look in her eyes was one of betrayal and he didn't understand. She had crossed her arms over her chest uncomfortably and locked her jaw.

"Han—"

"I gotta get to class..." she had muttered, turning around. "You should put some arnica on that."

_No matter what we breed  
We still are made of greed  
This is my kingdom come  
This is my kingdom come _

Two weeks went by.

Caleb had taken up smoking a long time ago, probably the same time most kids his age were just discovering alcohol, around fifteen. He didn't do it often, only when things got really bad. And then, it would be one after another after another, usually accompanied with a bottle of gin and joint or two. He didn't realize how much impact Hanna had had on him until she wasn't in his life anymore. He sat in the park, in the far corner, well on the way to being drunk and almost halfway through the packet of smokes he had only just opened. When he saw someone approaching out of the corner of his eye, he scrambled to his feet. He frowned when he realized it was Hanna.

"What are you doing here?" He muttered, dropping the cigarette to the ground and stubbing it out with the heel of his boot. She glared at him.

"Joey showed up at my house, wondering where you were," she snapped. "It's almost one in the morning, Caleb, and he's five years old! Shit!" Caleb swallowed hard. Hanna sighed and took a step closer to him, closing the distance between them and breathing in the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke. "Why did you shut me out, Caleb?" It was the most vulnerable he had ever heard her. "I thought you trusted me..." he sighed and couldn't meet her eyes.

"You're too good to be getting involved with any of my shit, Hanna," he murmured. Hanna had frowned.

"Isn't that my decision?"

"No...No, it's not," Caleb had shaken his head. "As much as you up play this spoilt brat persona of yours, you're the most caring person I know. You took in a kid you don't even know and fed him whenever he needed you. You took _me _in at the risk of being caught by your mum. You wash our clothes and you always put extra food in our bags when we leave. That costs money, and I know you only get a certain about of allowance each week! You care too much, Hanna—"

"Then just accept it."

_When you feel my heat  
Look into my eyes  
It's where my demons hide  
It's where my demons hide  
Don't get too close  
It's dark inside  
It's where my demons hide  
It's where my demons hide _

He hadn't argued with her again—not about that anyway. That night when he had gone back to her place, she had checked on Joey and he had gone up to the spare room as usual. He could hear her walking around the house and checking that all the doors were locked and curtains were shut, and then coming up the stairs. She went into her room and he rolled over, closing his eyes, assuming she was going to sleep.

Then his door had cracked open.

"Hanna?" He had murmured, sitting up and turning around. He had to blink to make sure he was seeing things properly.

Hanna stood there in absolutely nothing.

"I, uh..." Caleb kept on blinking, _positive _it was a dream. She had climbed onto the bed, throwing back the covers and straddling him. His breath had stuck in his throat, unable to breathe as her fingers began to move over his bare chest. "God, Hanna, what...What are you doing?" He had seen her lick her lips in the moonlight that was streaming through the window and it took everything he had not to grab her face and bring it down to his. He settled for a soft moan instead, which she heard, and smiled in response. She had leaned forward, her breath whispering over his neck as her lips moved over his ear.

"Let me take care of you, Caleb," she murmured. Something in Caleb had been triggered by her words and he grasped her waist, turning her over so that she was laying down on the bed, staring up at him. Her eyes flashed open in surprise, but when he grinded his hips down against hers, he saw them glaze over with lust. Her hair was splayed out over the pillow and her breasts were on full display, and Caleb needed a moment to take in just how beautiful she was. He bent his head down, his tongue flicking over her neck and his hand coming up the soft skin of her stomach to cup her breast. He felt her body respond instantly, her back arching off the bed and her nipple hardening under his thumb. A soft sigh of desire slipped from her lips as he slid a hand down from her breast to the apex of her legs, and before he pressed a kiss to those perfect lips, he whispered,

"It's my turn to look after you."

_They say it's what you make  
I say it's up to fate  
It's woven in my soul  
I need to let you go  
Your eyes, they shine so bright  
I want to save their light  
I can't escape this now  
Unless you show me how _

Caleb didn't have words to describe how amazing Hanna was. She got him a job—a good job. They reported everything to the cops about what had happened in the Harrison household, and Joey had been taken to an aunt. He turned eighteen two weeks later and moved out, into a tiny loft down town. The kitchen and lounge were all one tiny box, the bathroom was so small that there was barely room to turn around in, and after putting a double bed and a set of drawers in the bedroom it was full. But it was _his _and no one could take it away from him. And Hanna would show up almost every night, either with dinner or with ingredients to make it. He wasn't sure what she told Ashley, and he didn't care. All he cared was that she was there.

"You know you saved me, right?" He told her one night. She made a non committal noise under her breath. He shuffled closer to her on the couch, pulling her legs up over his and forcing her to look at him. "I'm serious, Han. I don't know what would have happened over the past few months if it wasn't for you."

"I just wish you hadn't had to go through it _at all_," she mumbled. Caleb pursed his lips. "You still have nightmares, you know? Sometimes when we're sleeping you twist and turn and almost fall out of the bed, and you mutter shit under your breath..." she sighed. "What you went through is still with you. And I hate that." Caleb leaned his forehead against hers, his hand brushing over her cheek.

"It's your demons that make you appreciate when you've got a good thing," he murmured. "And I've found that in you."

_When you feel my heat  
Look into my eyes  
It's where my demons hide  
It's where my demons hide  
Don't get too close  
It's dark inside  
It's where my demons hide  
It's where my demons hide_


End file.
